


About Last Night

by bardsley



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-14
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-15 00:42:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8035570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bardsley/pseuds/bardsley
Summary: Sarah seems to be in an unusually good mood. Her stepmother suspects that a boy might be involved.





	About Last Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertScribe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertScribe/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy the story. 
> 
> Thank you for editing, DarkAngelAzrael. All of the remaining mistakes are mine.

 

Sarah sang to herself as she scraped butter onto her toast. Toby gurgled approvingly at the melody from his perch on his high chair. Sarah looked up at Toby and smiled sweetly. She popped the toast into her mouth, and got up from her seat at the table to wrap her arms around her baby brother. Sarah cuddled Toby.

 

Irene watched open-mouthed. She was frozen in the act of shoveling mashed banana into Toby’s mouth. The baby giggled at the cuddling. Some of the banana mash dribbled on to the floor.

 

Robert grinned broadly, obviously delighted to see his children getting along. “Well… You two must have had some night last night, huh?”

 

Sarah shuddered, seeming to realize that her parents were there for the first time. “Rast might?” Sarah let go of Toby, took the toast out of her mouth, and tried again. “Last night was… oh! If I don’t hurry, I am going to be late for school!”

 

Irene glanced at the clock. It was perfectly true that if Sarah didn’t hurry, then she was going to be late for school. It was also not typically the kind of thing that troubled Sarah at all.

 

Sarah first kissed Toby on his forehead, and then her father. Robert was positively beaming with happiness. Sarah took a big bite out of her toast and tossed the rest at Merlin, her shaggy black and white sheep dog. Merlin snatched the toast out of the air without getting up. His tail thumped happily against the floor before the furry lump hauled himself to his feet to follow after Sarah.

 

“I can give you a ride,” Irene offered. She watched Sarah dash to the door and pick up her backpack.

 

Sarah swallowed the mouthful of toast. “No thanks!”

 

With a quick slam of the door, the girl and her dog were gone.

 

Irene stared at the door a moment longer, before turning a questioning glance at Robert.

 

“What do you think of that?” Robert asked, sounding pleased. He nodded sagely.

 

Irene agreed with the question, but not the sentiment that seemed to be behind it.

 

“I don’t know what to think of that,” Irene answered.

 

Toby pounded his little fist against his tray. Irene moved to feed him the mashed banana, noticed that it had fallen to the floor, and scooped some fresh banana into Toby’s waiting mouth.

 

Robert chuckled. “Sarah’s in a good mood. Maybe she and Toby are starting to bond. That’s what you wanted, right?”

 

Irene bent to wipe the spilt banana with a napkin. “Well, of course it is, but—”

 

“Well, you’ve got your wish,” Robert replied. He stood up and walked to Irene’s side of the table. Irene straightened up, and Robert kissed the top of her head.

 

“I have to go, or I’ll be late for work too,” Robert said.

 

Irene knew there was no point in continuing the conversation at that moment. Robert had an absolute talent for not noticing things that might be inconvenient to him to notice.

 

She watched her husband leave, and then finished giving Toby his breakfast. After the baby was fed and cleaned, Irene carried him upstairs and placed him in his crib. A battered, old teddy bear that Irene recognized as belonging to Sarah was in the crib with him. Toby picked up the bear, and cuddled it close, happily sucking on its ear. Irene moved silently across the hall. She paused outside of Sarah’s door. Her fingers closed around the doorknob. She didn’t open it.

 

Teenage girls did not just wake up one morning and take a liking to their step brothers. Robert would not realize that Sarah’s sudden good mood was anything to worry about, but he had never been a teenage girl. Irene knew that her reasons for wanting to look in her stepdaughter’s room were justified, but she didn’t think anyone else would. Least of all Sarah. But then, Sarah always treated her like an evil stepmother from a fairy story no matter what she did. Irene threw open the door to Sarah’s room.

 

It looked exactly like Sarah’s room. It was a little messier than usual, maybe, but there was nothing that stood out to Irene that would give a clue to Sarah’s sudden change in attitude. Irene looked around the room. She tried to disturb as little as possible. This room was Sarah’s kingdom, and Sarah guarded it jealously. She would know if so much as a hair was out of place.

 

A hair!

 

Lying across Sarah’s pillow was a long, auburn hair. Irene picked it up. It was coarse and long, not at all like Sarah’s hair. It couldn’t belong to Sarah or Irene or Robert, and it certainly didn’t belong to Toby.

 

“A boy!” Irene gasped to herself. Sarah must have had a boy over while Irene and Robert were out. Hadn’t Sarah said something about having plans? “I never thought…”

 

A secret boyfriend would go a long way to explaining Sarah’s sudden change in attitude. If anything could make a young woman happy, that was it. Irene remembered when she and Robert had first met…

Irene looked guiltily around the room. She felt as if she were being watched even though she knew that she and Toby were alone in the house. Irene glanced out the window, and nearly jumped when she saw big, yellow eyes looking back at her.

 

A big, white barn owl was staring at her from the tree outside Sarah’s window. It was ridiculous, but the way the bird was looking at her made her feel as if she were really being watched. Irene put the hair back on the pillow and backed out of the room. She had found the answer that she was looking for, she just had to figure out what to do about it.

 

Telling Robert was out of the question.

 

Irene closed the door to Sarah’s bedroom, shutting out the barn owl’s watchful gaze.

 

 

 

 

Sarah was very nearly on time when she got home from school, which was not typical behavior for her at all. Robert was still at the office, which was, sadly, all too typical. Irene checked her expression in the mirror above the fireplace. She wanted to make sure that she looked sympathetic and not at all evil-stepmother-like.

 

“Lots of homework,” Sarah called out by way of greeting, already racing up the stairs with Merlin on her heels. “Later!”

 

“Wait, Sarah,” Irene called back. She stood up. She tried to make her voice sound firm, but friendly. To Irene’s own ears, she just ended up sounding shrill. “We need to talk for a moment. Please.”

 

Sarah stopped on the stairs, turning around and nearly stepping on Merlin’s shaggy fur. Sarah looked at her stepmother with suspicion. “Have I done something wrong?”

 

Irene winced at the question. “Well, I… You’re not in trouble. Please, please sit down.” Irene gestured to the sofa.

 

Sarah slowly made her way down the stairs. She did not look like she believed Irene’s assurance of not being in trouble for a moment. Merlin followed, matching Sarah’s unenthusiastic pace. Sarah sat heavily on the sofa and Merlin laid his head in her lap.

 

Irene sat down beside them. She smoothed out her skirt. It felt distinctly like it was a two-against-one fight here, and she didn’t want to fight with Sarah at all.

 

“You’re a very beautiful young woman, Sarah,” Irene began nervously.

 

She watched a puzzled little frown appear on Sarah’s forehead.

 

“And it’s only natural that you are interested in boys. And it is only natural that they’d be interested in you…”

 

“Oh!” Sarah gasped suddenly. She laughed, and looked relieved. “You don’t need to worry. I am not interested in any boys.”

 

Sarah seemed so sincere that Irene doubted herself for a moment. She looked into Sarah’s brown eyes, and they seemed untroubled. While she and Sarah didn’t have the best of relationships, Irene didn’t think that Sarah would be able to lie to her outright without giving something away.

 

“It’s just that you were acting so strangely this morning…” Irene watched Sarah flush. She felt some renewed optimism that she was right. “And I… I was concerned… So I went in your room.”

 

Sarah burst to her feet so suddenly that Merlin had to jump back to avoid getting struck by her.

 

“You went in my room?!” Sarah howled.

 

Irene felt the need to stand too when faced with Sarah’s rage. “I went into your room and found a hair.”

 

“I can’t believe you!” Sarah said. Her face twisted in disgust.

 

“An auburn hair. Now, I know that that hair doesn’t belong to anyone in the family, which makes me think that you had someone over last night.”

 

Irene watched as guilt drained some of the fury out of Sarah’s features.

 

“I…” Sarah stammered. She looked down at the floor.

 

“Now, I am not mad at you,” Irene said. “And I haven’t told your father. I— I thought you and I could talk.”

 

Sarah couldn’t look at her. Merlin seemed to notice Sarah’s distress and barked at Irene. Again, Irene felt like she was being cast as the wicked step mother from a fairytale, but she wasn’t wicked, just a woman who happened to love Sarah’s father _and Sarah_ , damn it!

 

“I understand,” Irene said, pleading with Sarah to understand. “I was a teenage girl once too.”

 

“You don’t understand,” Sarah argued. She shook her head. “You don’t understand at all.”

 

Irene let out an exasperated sigh.

 

Sarah absently scratched Merlin behind the ear, and he stopped barking. “That hair you found doesn’t belong to a boy,” Sarah said, meeting Irene’s eyes. “It belongs to… a… a friend.”

 

Irene listened to what Sarah was and wasn’t saying. “Does this friend happen to be a boy?”

 

Sarah’s face scrunched in helpless dismay. “Sort of…?”

 

“Sarah! Even if this boy is just a friend, you shouldn’t be up in your room with him alone,” Irene said.

 

“We weren’t alone!” Sarah replied. She seemed to regret it a moment later.

 

“You weren’t? How many people were here last night?” Irene asked.

 

Sarah groaned with dismay and threw herself back on the sofa. Irene felt helplessly grateful that Sarah did not just run upstairs and refuse to talk to her.

 

“You don’t understand,” Sarah repeated. She folded her arms.

 

“Then explain it to me!” Irene all but begged. “I want to understand.”

 

Sarah looked away, and huffed. She combed her fingers through Merlin’s shaggy hair. Irene wanted something, someone to hold onto. Someone who loved her absolutely like the way Merlin loved Sarah. Irene thought of Toby upstairs taking his nap. But, no, she had to deal with this now.

 

“Can I at least meet these friends?” Irene asked.

 

“You don’t know what you are asking for…” Sarah muttered darkly.

 

Her stepdaughter was so stubborn! Irene thought that she might lose her mind. “I—ah?”

 

“Hast thou need of us, fair lady?”

 

Irene heard a small, overly refined voice speaking at the precise moment she did. She looked over her shoulder to the mirror hanging above the fireplace. Beside her reflection in the mirror, Irene saw a furry little man in knightly garb who resembled a fox terrier that Irene’s grandmother used to own.

 

Irene gasped.

 

“Do forgive me, madam,” the little knight said, taking off his blue feathered hat and bowing to her. “I had no intention of intruding.”

 

“You can see him?” Sarah asked excitedly.

 

“You can see him too?” Irene retorted. It might have been comforting to think that she wasn’t losing her mind, if they were both seeing the little creature. However, Irene realized that if she weren’t simply crazy, the situation was very likely more complicated than Irene knew how to deal with.

 

A bald, ugly little man appeared beside the furry knight in the mirror. “Why wouldn’t she be able to see us?” the little man demanded of Sarah.

 

“It’s just that in, in the stories, regular old people can’t see magic things,” Sarah answered. Even in that moment, it was the exact opposite of surprising to hear Sarah describe Irene as a “regular old” person.

 

“Well, those would be stories,” the little man replied. He was now outside the mirror and standing beside Sarah. “And this would be real life.”

 

Sara smiled indulgently at the little man. Irene found herself backing away, not taking her eyes off of the suspicious little man for a moment.

 

A sharp yelp made her turn around. She stepped on Merlin’s paw, making him jump. He nearly knocked off the little fox terrier knight that was riding him. Except a quick glance back at Sarah showed that Merlin was still beside her.

 

“Steady, Ambrosius! Steady!” the knight called. The dog and the knight riding him backed into a solid wall of auburn fur.

 

Irene looked up, and up, and into a troubled-looking, orangutan-like face topped with huge horns. “Doggie… hurt?” the giant rumbled.

 

Irene screamed. The giant looked at her with glistening frightened eyes. He howled with fear.

 

“Everyone, just calm down!” Sarah shouted, moving to her feet once again.

 

Upstairs, Toby began to cry.

 

Everyone besides Toby went quiet.

 

“It’s okay,” Sarah said, breaking the silence. “You can get him.”

 

Irene eyed the three very strange-looking strangers who were currently in her home.

 

“You can trust them,” Sarah said.

 

“I don’t know them,” Irene replied. She took a few halting steps toward the stairs, just to move back again. She was torn between comforting and protecting her son and wanting to protect her stepdaughter.

 

“Then trust me,” Sarah replied. “They’re my friends.”

 

And, really, what else would Sarah say?

 

But whoever these people were, strange as they were, they did not seem to be an immediate danger. The bald little man was holding onto Sarah’s hand and looking at Irene with as much suspicion as she felt about him.

 

The second sheep dog had settled, and the little dog-man atop it was trying to comfort the auburn-haired giant… who was sniffling as he looked at Irene. The giant’s broad mouth was pulled into a sad frown.

 

“I didn’t mean to scream at you,” Irene said to the giant.

 

He looked surprised, and sniffled, as if he were trying to stop crying. He looked like the biggest, saddest, stuffed animal in the world, and Irene wondered for a moment if she wasn’t the wicked stepmother out of a fairy story after all.

 

“I’m sorry,” Irene said to the giant. She watched with some relief as the big, broad mouth turned up into a smile.

 

“It is we who should apologize to thee, good madam,” the little knight replied. His expression brightened. Being kind to the giant seemed to have won the little knight’s appreciation too. Again, he lifted his hat and bowed to her. “We should have considered that our appearance could be considered… err… startling.”

 

“Why are you here anyway?” Sarah asked.

 

“You called to us,” the bald one answered simply.

 

“I did not!” Sarah argued.

 

“Your heart did,” he replied.

 

Sarah flushed. She did not appear to have an answer for that.

 

Toby was still crying.

 

“I need to get the baby,” Irene said. She herself wasn’t sure who exactly she was talking to.

 

It was the furry knight who answered. “Of course, good woman, please take thy leave.”

 

Irene began to curtsey, but stopped herself. She made her way to the stairs and up them, taking her eyes off of the trio as little as possible. She had to look away as she reached the top of the stairs. Irene walked into the nursery and picked Toby up out of the crib. She held him close, comforting herself as much as him, and bounced with him as she walked. It didn’t take long before Toby went quiet and snuggled into her arms. Irene only wished that she could settle down as quickly.

 

Irene debated with herself about whether to put Toby back in the crib or keep him with her when she went downstairs. In the end, she felt that Toby was safer with her, and that she would feel safer holding onto him. She carried the baby downstairs.

 

Irene had half-expected that the three strange visitors would be gone once she went downstairs, but all three of them were still there – four, counting the other sheep dog.

 

The two dogs were huddled together on the hearth rug. They were snuggled so close that they resembled one dog with two heads. For a troubled moment, Irene had the thought that if they were to get up that a two-headed dog would be exactly what they would be. It was that kind of day. Irene smoothed down Toby’s soft pajamas, and told herself, not entirely convincingly, that she was being ridiculous.

 

The little knight and the giant had been sitting crouched on the floor. They both stood up as she entered the room. The tips of the giant’s horns nudged the chandelier.

 

“Please, don’t get up,” Irene said to them.

 

She looked at the little bald man still seated beside Sarah.

 

“I ain’t,” he replied.

 

Irene laughed nervously. As the two others sat, she made her way to the chair beside the sofa. She sat down, cradling Toby in her arms.

 

“Stepmother,” Sarah said archly. “This is Hoggle—” Sarah gestured elegantly to the little bald man beside her. Then Sarah moved her hand in a sweeping motion to indicate the giant. “—this is Ludo.” The giant waved his dark, wrinkled hand. Sarah dropped her hand lower to indicate the little knight. “And that is Sir Didymus.”

 

“At your service,” Didymus said, nodding his head toward Irene.

 

The baby began to gurgle and fuss and strain to get down. With pained reluctance, Irene let him go. He crawled right to the giant.

 

Toby giggled. He took hold of one of Ludo’s big, clawed, fingers in his chubby hand. The giant smiled delightedly. “Toby… friend,” Ludo drawled. Irene felt something clenched tight inside her relax a little.

 

She looked back at Sarah. “Alright, I want you to tell me what’s going on.”

 

Sarah and Hoggle exchanged glances.

 

Hoggle gestured encouragingly.

 

Sarah let out a frustrated sigh. “Well, you see, about last night…”

 

 

 

 

By the time Robert got home from work, dinner was ready and Sarah was helping to set the table. Toby was playing with Merlin on the kitchen rug. Robert grinned.

 

“Did you have a good day?” Robert asked, watching with approval as Sarah smiled at her stepmother.

 

“I had a great day,” Sarah answered. She kissed Robert on the cheek, and spun away to pick up the salad bowl from the kitchen counter.

 

Robert looked elated. “See?” he mouthed to Irene.

 

Irene suppressed the desire to roll her eyes. She and Sarah had agreed to keep the labyrinth to themselves for now, mostly because neither of them could figure out exactly how to break the news to Robert.

 

All girls Sarah’s age had their secrets. Part of Irene wished that Sarah’s secret was a boy and not a Toby-stealing Goblin King, or a magical labyrinth, or three loyal but peculiar friends. A boy would have been easier to deal with. It would have been normal. Irene thought that perhaps it was time to accept that Sarah just wasn’t a normal girl.

 

Thinking about what Sarah described frightened her, especially when it came to Toby. Sarah seemed certain that the Goblin King would not come for Toby again, but… Irene jumped a little when she felt someone’s arms close around her.

 

“Are you alright?” Robert asked, looking at her with concern.

 

She snuggled close. “I’m fine. Just daydreaming.”

 

“You?” Sarah asked, laughing.

 

“Yes, me,” Irene huffed.

 

Robert laughed too. He nuzzled her before letting go. “Maybe it’s catching.”

 

“I hope not,” Irene replied, looking at Toby. She didn’t want to take the chance that this particular daydream might become a nightmare.

**Author's Note:**

> The end credits of the movie and IMDB list Sarah’s parent as stepmother and father. No names are given. The Wikipedia page for "Labyrinth" (film) lists her parents as Irene and Robert. I know Wikipedia is not a reliable source, but they needed names. I liked the names anyway.


End file.
